Design & Production, Inc. v. United States

36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,907, 21 Cl. Ct. 145, 1990 U.S. Claims LEXIS 275, 1990 WL 102415
United States Court of Claims·Decided July 20, 1990·No. No. 553-84C·Published·Cited by 104 cases

Opinion

ORDER

HORN, Judge.

This action is once again before the court, this time pursuant to the “Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision.” The court has reviewed the defendant’s Motion, the relevant legal authority, and considered the representations made by the parties during the May 9, 1990 status conference. The court remains unpersuaded by the arguments raised in the defendant’s “Motion for Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision” and finds that the original decision awarding attorney’s fees and other costs in the amount of $56,451.50, issued by the court on April 20, 1990, is correct. Accordingly, the court, hereby, denies the “Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision.”

[146] FACTS

The facts pertinent to the “Defendant’s Motion For Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision” in the above-captioned case are as follows.1 On September 14, 1989, the court issued its Opinion on the merits in Design And Production, Inc. v. United States, 18 Cl.Ct. 168 (1989). On January 11, 1990, plaintiff filed “Plaintiff’s Application for Costs and Expenses.” On February 9, 1990, the defendant filed a “Motion to Stay Proceedings” for 30 days until March 11, 1990, which, because it was Sunday, would actually have ended on Monday, March 12, 1990.2 The court did not act on the stay request, but both parties were informed that the court had already reviewed and researched the plaintiff’s fee application and that it would continue to refine the draft of the Order it had prepared. Subsequently, on February 14, 1990, the defendant filed “Defendant’s Response to Plaintiff’s Application for an Award Under the Equal Access to Justice Act.” Briefing on the plaintiff’s fee application was completed on March 1, 1990, when the plaintiff filed its “Reply Brief.”

On March 30,1990, the parties submitted to the court for its review a proposed “Stipulation for Entry of Judgment”, which contained the following language:

This stipulation is made for the purpose of enabling the court to enter judgment in the amount of $46,863.50 on plaintiff’s application for attorney fees. However, in the event this stipulation is rejected in whole or in part by the court, it is agreed that the entire stipulation shall be void and have no legal affect whatsoever.

On April 20, 1990, the court issued an Order, after a thorough analysis of the plaintiff’s fee request, as well as of the defendant’s brief in response, and awarded $56,451.50 for attorney’s fees and costs to the plaintiff. At no time prior to the issuance of the court’s Order did either of the parties request a conference with the Judge, despite the fact that the Judge’s law clerk informed the parties on several occasions that the Judge was continuing to work on finalizing an Order which would dispose of the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees and costs request.

On May 1, 1990, the court received “Defendant’s Motion For Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision.” In the Motion for Reconsideration, the “Government asks the court to reconsider the propriety rel non of issuing the decision, not its factual or legal merit.”

In an effort to provide both parties to this controversy an opportunity to address the issues, the court scheduled a status conference for May 9, 1990 to discuss the Motion for Reconsideration. To accommodate scheduling conflicts of the parties, the court rescheduled the status conference for May 10, 1990. In pertinent part, the Order arranging for the conference stated:

1. The plaintiff may respond to the “Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision,” on or before May 9, 1990.
2. The court, hereby, schedules a conference in the above-captioned case to discuss defendant’s motion on Thursday, May 10, 1990 at 10:00 a.m.

After receipt of the court's Order, counsel for the plaintiff informed the Judge’s law clerk that he did not intend to file a written response to the “Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration of Attorney’s Fees Decision.” Moreover, at the May 9, 1990 status conference, plaintiff’s counsel took no position on the defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration and stated as follows:

Just briefly, Your Honor. As you’ve already alluded to, the amount at issue is [147] not great. And in view of that amount, my client has not authorized to do the kind of research and preparation that I think would be appropriate and necessary to respond to this motion for reconsideration.
Without doing that kind of research, I think it would be meaningless for me to state a position here with regard to the issues raised by that motion.
So, I think officially my position has to be that we do not take a position or at least we do not comment on the motion.3

DISCUSSION

The basic organizing principle of the federal court system is found in the United States Constitution. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution, which provides that “[t]he judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution provides, in part:

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; — to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls; — to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;— to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party____

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Design & Production, Inc. v. United States, 36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,907, 21 Cl. Ct. 145, 1990 U.S. Claims LEXIS 275, 1990 WL 102415 (cc 1990).

36 Cont. Cas. Fed. 75,907 (Design & Production, Inc. v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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